Obstetrician is cleared of misconduct over baby’s death after attempted forceps delivery outside operating theatre

A senior consultant obstetrician has been cleared of misconduct over her role in the delivery of a baby who died two days after an emergency caesarean.

A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel found that Sharon Oates had made an “error of judgment,” which she admitted, in attempting a forceps delivery in the delivery room rather than taking the patient to the operating theatre.

Oates was also held to have used “inappropriate” language and to have caused distress in telling the parents after the baby was taken to the neonatal unit after the delivery, “Sorry about your baby. We didn’t anticipate it being as big as it was. It was never coming from that little bottom.”

But the panel cleared her of …